Procrastination is a word I hear often from people – usually accompanied by a grimace and a little shrug, a “Don’t really want to admit it but………..Yeah, I procrastinate sometimes.”

But in my experience (and also in my research**), there are a few core things that might underlie your garden-variety procrastination, and I’d like to explore one in particular, one that I’ve encountered often in many really outstanding professionals I know.

It’s something I like to call ‘resistance to using the tools.’

Every one of us, at some point or another, comes up against the fact that we don’t actually know how to use all the tools. For me, that encompasses about ⅔ of the Home Depot warehouse and the entire section referred to as “power tools.”

Now, I CAN use a drill, if I absolutely HAVE to, like, if you held a gun to my head, I could do it.

But guess what? There’s been this keybox that I have needed to install for about 2 months now, and I HAVE NOT DONE IT. To be completely honest, yesterday I gave up and hired someone else to do it. Why? Why in the world would I “procrastinate” and put off something that really, I can do?

Well, that’s where the psychology of “resistance” to doing something comes into play. There’s a lot of reasons why – a whole plethora of them – and they included, in no particular order:

My dad always did stuff like that and my mom never did (modeling)

I’m not really comfortable or familiar with power tools (insecurity, lack of skills)

People might see me doing it and laugh (embarrassment, insecurity)

I might do it wrong and someone else would have to redo it (ditto)

I have more important things to do (ego)

If I spend my time on those more important things, I will make more money than if I fart around with a drill all afternoon (now this one has some merit, but often it’s just an excuse for justification)

The list could go on, but you get my drift.

Now, the reason why I’m telling you all this is that we see this a lot with our clients – especially when it comes to using the tools we provide in a really powerful way.

To fully and skillfully use the tools at your disposal as a real estate professional (or any other professional in today’s day and age) you might need to confront your own resistance to using the tools – things like fresh content on your website, great photography, the new IDX we are launching, your social media strategy. I invite you to make an honest list of the reasons WHY you might feel resistance, and if you would, tell me about them. We are working on a new free coaching series on all these tools that will be available to you later this year, and if you tell me about your ”why” now, or tell me what you are struggling with, I will personally respond to you, get you beta access to our materials as we release them, and also send you my great appreciation and thanks.